Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1918 — FIVE LIVES WERE SNUFFED OUT [ARTICLE]

FIVE LIVES WERE SNUFFED OUT

When Big Four Train Struck Auto Near Lafayette. Five lives were snuffed out in an instant Saturday afternoon at 4:40 o’clock, at she Altamont crossing of the Big Four railroad three miles south of Lafayette when west bound Big Four passenger train No. 19, traveling at a high rate of speed, struck the machine in which were Prof. Charles M. Plank, fifty-eight years of age, of' West Lafayette, principal of the Wea high school; his wife, Amanda Plank, fifty-four; their daughter, Mrs. Ethel Odell, thirty-two, of Gadsden, Alabama, and her two children, Robert Oded, two, and Ralph Odell, six. The party was returning to Lafayette in a Ford touring car and, according to a member of the crew in charge of v the Big Four train, the machine hesitated on the track on which the passenger, which was late, was speeding toward the city, and in a second the tragic scene was enacted. The auto was carried about 300 feet and Mr. and Mrs. Plank sustained fractured skulls and Mrs. Odell and two sons suffered broken necks in the smashup.

Whether Mr. Plank, who was driving, thought he could beat the train across the crossing, became confused, or did not see the passenger speeding at a mile a minute gait, is not known. Mr. Plank, driver of the car, was the father of five sons and two daughters. Mrs. Odell, who was killed-, was the oldest daughter and the other, Amy Plank, has been residing with her parents at their home, 465 Vine street, West Lafayette. The sons are Empry C. Plank, thirty-three years old, of Gadsden, Alabama; Rev. Clayton Plank, tweu-ty-eigbt, of Elkhart, who is doing Y. M. C. A, work at a southern camp; Charles Plank, twenty-seven, Augusta, Georgia; Roscoe Plank, twenty-three, Allentown, Pennsylvania, with the Purdue ambulance unit, and Joseph Plank, a student who lived with his parents. Mr. Plank was well known over the county, having taught school in that vicinity for years. No funeral arrangements will be made until the arrival of the older sons, who are en route home.